Ridership in Virginia and North Carolina

https://media.amtrak.com/2024/02/virgin ... southeast/

Record ridership driving growth

WASHINGTON — More people are traveling by train with a record number stopping in Virginia and North Carolina. The top five stations in the Southeast in 2023 were the Staples Mill Road Station in Richmond, Va., Alexandria, Va., Charlotte, N.C., Norfolk, Va., and Raleigh, N.C.

“The tremendous growth in ridership is a result of the substantial investments North Carolina and Virginia are making to expand and improve passenger rail,” Amtrak Vice President Ray Lang said. “Customers are taking advantage of a sustainable way to travel to the many destinations our network offers.”

Amtrak Virginia, the Virginia state-supported passenger rail service, offers 12 daily trains to the Richmond station for service to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York, and Boston. Customers can also access additional Amtrak service for travel to Raleigh, Charlotte, Savannah, Ga., and other cities as far south as Miami.

“Richmond is not just the capital of Virginia, it’s the epicenter of the East, connecting the Southeast and the Northeast by rail,” said DJ Stadtler, Executive Director of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) which oversees the Commonwealth’s Amtrak Virginia service. “All three of these stations – Richmond-Staples Mill, Alexandria, and Norfolk – offer Virginians access to rail service connecting the Commonwealth with the rest of the East Coast.”

In North Carolina, the Piedmont and Carolinian services offer daily roundtrips for travel between Raleigh, Charlotte, and points in between. The Piedmont and Carolinian, which travels daily from New York to Charlotte, and stops at the Staples Mill Road Station in Richmond, Va., and Alexandria, Va., are sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and operated by Amtrak.

“The growth we’ve seen in ridership in 2022 and 2023 is unprecedented,” said Jason Orthner, NCDOT’s Rail Division Director. “Continuing to work in partnership with Amtrak and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority to increase connections and decrease travel time between destinations in the South and the Northeast is a priority to increase and enhance NC By Train service in North Carolina and beyond.”

Virginia and North Carolina received federal grants to help continue pursuing their vision to expand service in the region.

In addition to Richmond, Alexandria, and Norfolk, Amtrak Virginia also serves Newport News, Roanoke, and 12 other Virginia communities. In 2023, the service set a ridership record of more than 1.3 million passengers, making the Commonwealth one of the most popular travel destinations on the Amtrak national network.

Plans are underway to expand Amtrak Virginia service through VPRA’s Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative, resulting in two additional roundtrips in 2026 and three in 2030.

Amtrak is capitalizing on ridership growth by advancing historic infrastructure investments that will launch new and expanded services, advance safety and reliability, improve accessibility, drive economic development and enhance the customer experience.

Station 2023 Ridership Routes
Richmond – Staples Mill Road 424,617 Amtrak Virginia Service to Washington, DC, New York, and Boston
Additional service to Washington, DC, New York, Charleston, Savannah, and Miami

Alexandria, Va. 327,285 Amtrak Virginia Service to Washington, DC, New York, and Boston
Additional service to Washington, DC, New York, Indianapolis, Chicago, New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, and Miami

Charlotte, N.C. 281,220 Service to Raleigh, Washington, DC, New York, and New Orleans
Norfolk, Va. 232,530 Amtrak Virginia Service to Richmond, Washington, DC, New York, and Boston
Raleigh, N.C. 231,229 Service to Charlotte, Washington, DC, and New York

Add Raleigh and Charolotte together with their total MSA less than Atlanta. That leaves nothing but negatives for Atlanta.

goes to show that concentrated effort on a corridor with conventional equipment and multiple frequencies is the future of passenger trains.

Even then, look at Greensboro (190k) just below and Roanoke (110k) with significant numbers too.

west point wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 2:04 pm Add Raleigh and Charolotte together with their total MSA less than Atlanta. That leaves nothing but negatives for Atlanta.

You are not being fair to Atlanta. Just look at how many trains arrive in Atlanta, vs Raleigh, Richmond, and Charolette.
The only train reaching Atlanta is the Crescent. It is scheduled to arrive at around 9 am southbound, arrives in New Orleans around 9 pm (a 12 hour trip). It arrives in Atlanta around 11:30 pm northbound, arrives in Charolette around 5:30 am (4 hours), arrives in DC around 2 pm (another 8.5 hours), arrives in NYC around 6 pm (another 4 hours). Total time northbound from Atlanta to NYC is 16.5 hours. Total time NO to NYC is around 28.5 hours, ignoring any time zone changes.
Charolette, Raleigh, Richmond see far more train than just one every day in both directions.

Of the 6 trains that call at either Raleigh or Charlotte daily, 5 are fully supported by the State of NC, and 4 of those are only between those two cities. The other trains are the Carolinian (state supported) between Charlotte and points north via Raleigh, the Crescent (Charlotte only) and Silver Star (Raleigh only). The Piedmonts alone account for 56% of the boardings from Raleigh and Charlotte (and the Carolinian also has significant Raleigh to Charlotte only business), which suggests that if Georgia were to invest service between Atlanta and other cities within 3 hours of Atlanta, they could build up that kind of traffic as well (especially since Raleigh and Charlotte MSAs combined are only 2/3 of the Atlanta MSA).

I've said for years, Atlanta really needs a "day train" from DC, i.e. one that arrives in the evening and departs in the morning. The problem of course is blocking the NS tracks. But honestly, with the right timing, you'd basically be able to leverage the existing staff.

Given how popular the overnight coach traffic is, I'm pretty sure a day coach train would do well enough.

Finally, someone has actually put into print (FRA in this case) that a new station in ATL is needed,

Greg Moore wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 7:38 pm I've said for years, Atlanta really needs a "day train" from DC, i.e. one that arrives in the evening and departs in the morning. The problem of course is blocking the NS tracks. But honestly, with the right timing, you'd basically be able to leverage the existing staff.

This is the truth. It's a 14 hour ride WAS-ATL, so you could do 7a-9p. Alternatively a train that connects with a Piedmont in CLT so it's just ATL-CLT-RDU, which would be a great market.

As for parking in ATL, you'd have to deadhead somewhere perhaps 20 miles away to find a convenient storage space. Alternatively you could keep going to BHM which is a quieter downtown.

The Atlanta station is a huge Achilles heel in the Southeast. It’s not just the lack of parking, the station itself is substandard.

Some developer is trying to plan a building in the ATL Gulch. Time is getting closer tp provide space for tracks under any future building.
A daytime train north from ATL should follow from CLT the Piedmont / Carolinian route to WASH - NYP. Only town missed by not taking Crescent route is Danville Va.

Charlottesville is also missed. Home of UVA and probably generates more ridership than Danville. Other than that, I agree with you.

Don't forget Lynchburg.

But LYH & CVS already have 3 daily RTs and CVS the 3 day a week Cardinal that may become daily. IMO Better to have direct thru service to the more populous eastern NC & Va be a thru train from ATL. And maybe even south of ATL.